HANNA CHU
Assistant A&E Editor
Attention aspiring musicians: MySpace.com announced Monday the launching of MySpace Records, an endeavor with Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records to find talented, up-and-coming artists.
MySpace.com is a social networking site much like Facebook.com or Friendster.com, but it also allows users to watch videos and listen to music. Personal sites can play music videos from a member’s favorite artists, and those wanting to break into the music industry can make a profile as a band or solo artist that plays musical tracks.
Sophomore Trey Brown is one singer and songwriter who uses MySpace.com as his main avenue for publicity.
“I don’t have a lot of resources at my hands,” Brown said. “I’m just a college student.”
But through this Web site, college students are able to network with other bands and create a fan base all over the world.
“I have 1,200 friends (on MySpace.com),” Brown said. “People I don’t even know add me after hearing my music.”
On Nov. 15, “MySpace Records: Volume I” will be released, the first CD featuring a collection of artists found through the Web site’s band culture.
MySpace.com allows anyone who stumbles upon a particular band’s profile to download and sample the music.
Junior Seth Yonker found a band on MySpace called Scratched Vinyl Innocence, a solo musical project founded by Jeff Rosick, a junior at Gonzaga University.
“MySpace is a great way to promote his music because it allows people to access his music, even those who live far away,” Yonker said.
With a booming band culture on MySpace, many new, aspiring musicians are joining the site each day. Artists cite the Web’s broad reach as a main reason for putting their music on MySpace.
“My target audience is the world,” Rosick said.
In the past, Rosick has used Purevolume.com, another music-sharing Web site, to get his music out to the public. Rosick said he had problems with the site when they changed the format for sharing songs.
“They no longer allowed a certain type of mp3s files,” he said.
Rosick said he hasn’t encountered these problems with music sharing on MySpace.com.
“MySpace has sort of an independence to it,” he said. “It’s a more welcoming format to share your music.”
Yonker said the only drawback is that the musicians don’t make any money for showcasing their music on MySpace.
However, this doesn’t bother artists like Matt Bannister of The List, another band with a MySpace profile.
“We want our music to be heard any way it can,” he said. “If it means having a few of our songs available for free, then we’re more than willing to do that.”
Bannister is a college student at the University of West Georgia. The members of his pop/rock band decided to make a MySpace profile to reach an audience that they wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. He said they also enjoy getting feedback from their fans who leave comment on their profile.
“MySpace is a friendly place,” he said. “We get many random strangers, but we always try to respond to them. If they can take the time to notice us, we can take the time to thank them and get to know them.”
Rosick said the people who go out of their way to leave encouraging messages are the backbone of the music industry.
“Those are the people that really care about music,” he said. “They are the ones who take the painstaking extra minute out of their away-message-checking boredom to send a message saying, ‘I dig your stuff, man. Great job, keep it up and never stop.’”
MySpace Records expects to sign about five groups in the next year.
11-10-2005
